After watching fish after fish taken on drop-shot at the Tourney, I decided I have to give this technique a better try than I had in the past. I went out to my favorite lake after work yesterday and on the 4th cast I made, which was the 1st cast to this particular point which always has atleast one fish somewhere on it, I felt something different. I never felt a hit or saw the line move, but when I tightened up the line for the 3rd time to raise the 6" Grandpa's Weenie in bass color it just didn't feel the same as the previous few times. I pulled harder to see if it was just sliding through rocks and it moved,...away! I reared back as hard as I could with the flimsy 7'10" medium light rod that I had. For a few seconds nothing really happened. Then all #ell broke loose! The bass shot up from the depths and did a full cartwheel! Then it took about 10 yards of line and jumped again! Its been a while since I've caught a bass on line that wasn't close to twice the weight of the bass or more. I was using 6# line with 2# of drag and this fish had all the power it needed to make a mockery of the gear for a while. It greyhounded across the surface for about 5 yards next and them dove and rubbed across the bottom. One more Jump with a massive head shake and it was starting to tire out. I carefully worked it to hand and had a nice 5.75# bass for my first drop-shot fish. I transferred the fish onto my flippin stick and wedged it in a log so I could go get my camera and scale from the car and discovered that I had the scale but the camera was sitting on my desk at work. ;( After I got it weighed I released it and while it seemed to have a slight problem diving, it swam away strong and quickly disappeared into the depths. :7
Next I picked up the flippin stick with a Woodsac Delta Money Reeper on a 5/0 offset Gammie and a 3/8oz rattling Florida weight screwed in and punched it through some nearby brush. I pulled out the small tangle on my spool and gave it 1 hard twitch and was letting the bait fall back to the bottom when it just kept going. I set into another solid fish and it went straight up into the brush and over a few limbs. it came back down and went right back up getting stuck with its head hanging just out of the water. Then it really went nuts and after 30 seconds it fell off the hook, leaving my line and the brush looking like a kindergarten macrame gone wrong. The bass wasn't quite as big as the first one going probably 3.5-4# but it fought just as impressively in that confined space. Thanks to John Lake and Jake Woodsac for a great fight even if I didn't get the fish.
So, now I need to get a real drop-shot rod and work on that technique. Any suggestions for a rod in the under $70 range?
Tight lines,
Wade

"greyhounded" LOL you making new words Wade :+ j/k glad the DM reap got one for ya, theres plenty more where that fish came from, that bait will flip fish anywhere any time of year. Congrats on the 1st dropshot fish and a good one at that. I'll let the more season dropshotters answer your question about rod,etc.

Kistler makes a great drop-shot rod, a bit more money than you are looking at but it is well worth it. Save up a bit more and buy a good quality rod, you will be happier in the long run.



FIT

How much money are we talking? Is that the same rod from the raffle?
Tight lines,
Wade

I also gave DSing its first real chance this year and let met tell you I am a convert!

The rod that I have been using for DSing has neen a medium action Shimano that I bought from Lazy Fish (forgot the model) but Shimano makes some quality rods in the $60-$80 price range. My rod is 6'6" but I think I would like a seven footer next time. I like a medium action with a soft tip since the dropshots exposed hook does not nessitate a big time hook set but the mediunm action gives me enough power to stear the fish out of cover. On the Delta or other lakes that have more cover like Clear lake I used my Kistler medium casting rod with 12-15 pound floro, untill I donated it to the river gods a few weeks ago. It was a 6'8" rod with a soft tip and it worked great. When I get around to replacing it I will do all my dropshotting with it as the casting rod eliminates much of the line twist problums that DSing can produce. When I have to use lighter than 8# line I will use a spinning rod but rarely use any line that light.

The other suggestion I would have on a spinning real is to use one with an oversized spool. Someone made that suggetion to me and it made a big difference with the line twisting. The real I use for my DSing now is actually my wifes reel which is one of the new Mitchells. It performs quite well for an inexpensive reel, it has instant anti-reverse, smooth drag and a HUGE oversized spool.

I am also sold on P-line Floro-Clear for DSing, it has great sensitivity, small dimater, little strech and tends not twist as much on my spinning rod.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Don't know a whole lot about the drop shot, but like you, I got my first fish drop-shotting this week (a nice, fat 4lber @ Blue Lakes)What seemed to work for me though was maintaining contact on the bottom with my sinker, and shaking the bait on an very slight slack line. I was using the yamamoto flat grub.

Cranium,
For the weight I was actually using a split-shot with a glass bead and a tungsten bullet sliding above it so when I shook it, it would faintly rattle.
In the Tourney at Beacon harbor on Franks Tract, the guy I watched get the most fish would get the bigger ones when he would just tighten and slacken his line. He got more dinks but faster when he shook it hard. I did some looking at it in clear water and the slow tighten/slacken made the worm come up off the bottom and sink back like a minnow slowly grabbing a morsel. If you quickly tighten it shoots off the bottom like an ill minnow and slowly sinks back when you give slack. If you shake it at the top, it looks even more like an ill minnow spazzing out, but I think that it's easy to overdo. This last one also would rattle the hardest with my rig.
Tight lines,
Wade

PS: so are there any specific rods in my price range to look at and what's the price on the Kistler?

Wade, I love to hear about other people catching fish on my baits! Makes it all worth while. :-)

You're looking at double what you want to pay. The Kistler runs about $130. I would look at a couple of the Shimano series rods listed at tacklewarehouse.com. Still a good rod and it's in your price range. Hope thats somewhere for you to start.

Shimano clarus rods are in your price range anf I know Cranium will back up he quality of those rods

The Kistler Drop Shot Special rod is $139.99

The Kistler Rod that I had was $139.00 it was a Mark Tyler signature rod that I do not think they make any more.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Bass Pro Shops has some house-brand rods that might serve your needs. Y'might wanna take a look at what they have to offer. I've enjoyed their Bionic Blade and Pro Qualifier-series rods for years, and have never paid over $100 for one (usually only $50-70).

They've got a wide selection, which you should be able to mine through pretty easily to find the right one for the application(s) you're trying to accomodate.

- jeff

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Every day Congress convenes, we lose a little more of our LIBERTY!!!

(-- Mark Levin, radio-show host/KSFO 3-6pm)

Woodsac,
I love being able to tell ya about it! BTW I saw the baits that you sent JC and they're pretty sweet too. I liked the feel of them and the smell. What would it take to get some of those craws w/ the natural positioned arms with floating claws? You sent him 1 with right angle arms and it didn't look like it would pull through anything but thats MHO, otherwise sweet baits.
As for the Kistler, that's toooo RICH for this guy. I've had Clarus rods before (as a matter of fact the 1 I was using was 1) and if you match the rod to the application they can be awesome for the $. Speaking of which, I'd think I would want a 6' or 6'6" Med. with an Extra-Fast action/taper, right?
Tight lines,
Wade

PS: Thanks to everyone for their input.